Wintertime is ripe for oranges, lemons, and more citrus

For some chefs and produce merchants, the dark days of January and February are among the most wonderful times of the year.

Winter is citrus season, the window of time in which oranges are at their sweetest, lemons are brightest, and the colorful fruits are bursting with flavorful juice.

“All the chefs I’ve worked with look forward to this time of year,” said chef Dominic Piperno of Collingswood’s Hearthside, who recently changed the ceviche on his menu to one that would highlight blood oranges.

From grapefruit to lemons to oranges to kumquats, many citrus fruits reach their peak during winter and spring. That bounty has already begun making its way to local supermarket shelves and restaurant kitchens.

Vincent Finazzo, owner of Fishtown’s Riverwards Produce Market, presides over a cornucopia of citrus in wintertime. A wholesale distributor as well as a retail store, Riverwards sells plenty of local produce throughout the year, but come January, Finazzo fills the shop with orange, yellow, and green fruit that he gets mostly from California, Florida, and Texas.

“People want a good orange in the summer, but it’s kind of the worst time,” he said. “It typically comes from outside of the country when you have an orange in the summer.”

But citrus is more than just oranges, Finazzo said. There are Meyer lemons, a lower-acid fruit perfect for desserts, lemonades, or cocktails. There’s citron, a thick-rind lemon used for baking, from which many other strains of lemons have been developed. Cara Cara oranges are pinkish on the inside, with notes almost like grapefruit. Satsuma oranges, which are seedless with loose skin that’s easy to peel, are similar to mandarins. He has pink or “Eureka" lemons, which can be used in marmalades or baked goods. Finazzo also carries sour oranges, blood oranges and kumquats, which are almost like mini oranges with an edible peel.

He encourages customers to use citrus juice to marinate meat, because, he said, the acidity acts as a tenderizer. He also suggested adding grapefruit or blood orange to salads made from radicchio or endive.

“People also just underestimate how good regular lemons and limes are right now," he said. “Now’s the time to make a key lime pie or a citrus dressing.”

Citrus desserts can be found on a number of local menus, such as Center City’s Vernick Coffee Bar, where diners can end the meal with olive oil cake that is topped with vibrant slices of blood orange.

At Pumpkin, the BYOB at 1713 South St., chef Ian Moroney has added touches of citrus to a scallop appetizer, a rich chocolate cake, and to portokalopita, a Greek dessert that he bakes with orange zest and tops with fresh oranges, grapefruit, and candied kumquats.

“You don’t want something to just taste like citrus,” he said. “Ideally it’s a flavor that brings up the taste of everything.”

Other restaurants are currently using citrus with cheeses, or in fish dishes. Piperno, of Hearthside, refashioned his menu’s ceviche as he got his first shipment of California blood oranges. The resulting dish is marinated with blood orange, lime, and lemon juice, sweetened with elderflower, and tossed with glistening wedges of blood orange and grapefruit, then served with avocado puree and salty house-made potato chips.

He said home chefs could even experiment with making their own: Just buy a cut of fresh fish, like red snapper, black sea bass, or fluke, marinate it five to 10 minutes with citrus juice and some cilantro, and serve with chips and maybe some salsa.

“Everyone always looks forward to spring, to strawberries and rhubarb,” he said. “But for a short period of time, when it’s freezing cold, you have all this beautiful bright fruit to work with.”